It is all over in seconds. A salty anchovy snatched from its tin; a jagged crumb of Parmesan, or a snaffled umeboshi plum. Sometimes it is the sour heat of a slice of vinegary cucumber, the one they call bread and butter pickle. I can conduct a hot and salty fridge raid in the blink of an eye. All too often it is the lid from the sushi ginger that gets unscrewed, the sweet heat of the satin-soft slices of root stopping me in my tracks.
But if I am looking for something a little more serious, it will be the homemade pickled ginger I head for, the one steeped in rice vinegar and orange, and whose ivory surface is shot through with the magenta of a few slices of stowaway beetroot. The introduction of the red root calms the ginger down, which tends to be much hotter and less sweet than the commercial versions. Use more sugar if you like a sweeter version. You could also cool the ginger down a little by using a larger ratio of beetroot. I don’t trust myself to use a mandolin slicer, but one would be ideal for cutting the ginger very finely, should you have such kitchen kit. A jar of preserved ginger lasts for ages and perks up a mackerel fillet or a bowl of steamed rice like little else.
Occasionally, I get a craving for something more complex. This week it was a need – lust might be a more accurate word – for hot, sweet, salty chicken, the sort that leaves you gasping for a cold beer. I tossed chubby, free-range chicken wings from the butcher in ginger, garlic, chilli and fish sauce, then baked them until they were bronzed and, here and there, lightly scorched. I made a dressing of tomatoes and the caramelly stickings from the roasting tin and spiked it with lime. A hit of heat, crunchy bones, salt and sour in one tantalisingly hot mouthful. Of course, I jumped in too soon, stinging my lips in the process, but scarlet wings, chilli and lime was just the hit I needed.
Pickled ginger
A hot and rather useful pickle, wonderful with steamed rice, sushi or crisply fried fish. The pickling liquor is a useful seasoning, too. Try to cut the ginger as thinly as possible. Look for ginger roots that are plump, firm and pale in colour. When sliced, they should have a light lemon note to them and pale ivory-coloured flesh. Makes 1 x 500ml preserving jar. Ready in a week or so.
caster sugar 3 tbsp
sea salt 2 tsp
rice vinegar 300ml
fresh ginger 400g
raw beetroot 1, medium-sized
orange 1
black peppercorns 4, whole
Put the caster sugar and salt into a stainless-steel saucepan, pour in the rice vinegar and bring to the boil. Stir until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Sterilise a large preserving jar.
Peel the ginger and slice as thinly as you can. Ideally, each slice should be almost translucent. Peel the beetroot and cut into fine slices. Mix the beetroot and ginger together and stuff into the preserving jar. Remove 3 or 4 strips of peel from the orange and tuck them among the ginger and beetroot. Sprinkle in the peppercorns, pour in the hot vinegar and sugar mixture, then tighten the stopper and leave to cool. Store in the fridge for a week or so before using.
Baked chicken wings
A recipe made to satisfy a craving for more than just a momentary fridge raid. Supermarkets and some butchers have a habit of trimming chicken wings of the tips, which is a shame. Roasted, the pointed wing tips become sweetly chewy and utterly delicious. You may have to ask your butcher to save you some wings with their delectable tips intact.
You could make the paste and marinade the wings for an hour or two, if it suits you. I am not convinced it makes as much difference as one might think, but it may simply be convenient to have the wings prepared and ready to go in the oven. I use 2-3 tbsp of chilli sauce according to how hot I need the dressing to be. Serves 3. Ready in 1 hour
chicken wings 15, large
limes 2
For the marinade:
garlic 4 cloves
ginger 60g piece
soft brown sugar 2 tbsp
sriracha or other chilli sauce 2-3 tbsp
fish sauce 2 tbsp
tomatoes 400g
Peel the cloves of garlic and drop them into the bowl of a food processor. Peel and roughly chop the ginger, then add it to the garlic with half a tsp of salt and the soft brown sugar. Blitz to a coarse and dryish paste, then pour in the sriracha and fish sauce.
Process to a moist paste, then scrape into a roasting tin, removing every bit from the processor bowl with a rubber spatula. Put the wings into the spice paste, then turn them over and over with your hands or a large spoon until they are lightly covered in the spice mixture. Set aside for a few minutes while the oven heats to 200C/gas mark 4.
Bake the wings for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn over the wings with kitchen tongs. Return to the oven for 10 minutes. Roughly chop the tomatoes.
Remove the wings from the tin and keep warm. Place the roasting tin over a moderate heat and stir in the chopped tomatoes, letting them soften and dissolve the delicious debris stuck to the tin. Squeeze in the juice of the lime then, as the tomatoes soften, press them gently with a vegetable masher. You need to squash them a little, not reduce them to a purée.
Return the chicken to the tin for a couple of minutes, then transfer everything to a serving plate. Offer a few limes to squeeze over as everyone eats.
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